By Roy J. Akers-www.skyviewsports.net
Often, the best things about NFL Football is the conversations and quotes after the game.
Lions-Packers- They Said it… Dan Campbell
Dan Campbell in the Lions locker room after Detroit beats Green Bay after the team goes for it on fourth and short when a field goal would have given the Lions a final minute lead.
“You talk about pressure? We LIVE in pressure. It’s where we freakin’ thrive!” Dan Campbell’s postgame speech in the Lions locker room is here, complete with Dan Skipper puking after giving it all.
Dan Campbell adds this…
“Man, what a win. That was a hell of a job by our players, and our coaches, that was a total team effort. We talked about it, what we were going to need going in, the style that we needed to play with, and we wanted that defense to just cut it loose, just go play. Effort, finish, and man they did that. God, they did that.
“Hell of a job by AG [Aaron Glenn], and those guys just laid it on the line. We call them the northern savages, they just roll right in the door, and they’re in the game. It’s a hell of a job.“I just felt like we needed to end it on offense, and I did not want to give that ball back, and I believed we could get that,” Campbell said. “I believed we could convert, and I trust that O-line, I trust David (Montgomery), and they came through for us. It’s a hell of a call by Ben (Johnson). I knew how I wanted to play this game, the team knew it, and everything in me told me, ‘Let’s finish this,’ and so we did.”
What the Pundits said about Campbell’s decision
Dan Graziano, a senior NFL reporter for ESPN: “It was, objectively, a reckless decision, but he didn’t do it out of a sense of recklessness. He had multiple good reasons for doing it, as he outlined, and his team has utter faith in him.
Cam Newton, former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst: “I see this from a fan’s perspective. I can appreciate the consistency that coach Dan Gamble has been coaching with in his coaching career. As a player, if I was in that locker room, I also would have to say that I appreciate the consistency, knowing if I was Jared Goff … you know it’s second-and-10, third-and-6 or fourth-and-2 and you’re past your 50-yard line, within reason, given the circumstances of the game, you’re going for it.
What the Packers said…
“It’s tough,” defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “You get them fourth-and-1, fourth-and-inches and they’re able to get it and keep the drive going. I think we got like one stop or two stops on fourth down, but they had way more conversions in those situations.”
The distance required on third down? On average, 4.3 yards for Detroit and 9.2 for Green Bay. From that perspective, Goff and Jordan Love were playing completely different games.
“We got to find ways to get stops,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “We got to find ways to generate more turnovers to put our offense in a better spot. We got to get the stops. When we need to get the stop, we got to get the stop. That’s what it is.”
Amon-Ra on Campbell
“We knew all game we were going to go for it if it was fourth-and-close. That last one, I didn’t know if we were going to go for it or not, but he said we were staying in,” St. Brown said.
The Packers want another shot at Detroit
At 9-4, the Packers are still in good position to make the playoffs and defensive tackle Kenny Clark thinks they are destined to return to Detroit for another shot at a team that beat them twice in the regular season. “We’re definitely going to be back here and we’ll be excited to play them again once we do,” Clark said, via the team’s website. “But it’s tough, it’s a tough loss. Gotta get better from here, and we will get better from here.”
